This is my business. We’re getting our wheels run off, but we’re keeping up for now. I’ll be brief because I need to lie down so I can safely start again at zero dark thirty tomorrow.
We’re not seeing a shortage of goods right now. Production can be ramped up. More tractors and trailers are readily available. What you can’t get more of any time soon is safe, competent, veteran drivers. You can’t train enough of them in time to get this situation back under control. The distribution bottleneck is or will soon be drivers’ productive capacity—HOURS.
Commercial drivers’ hours of service are limited and tightly controlled by the federal motor carrier regulations. There’s already a provision in the regs to suspend hours of service limits on drivers hauling freight to the relief of officially designated disaster or emergency areas. Right now the entire country is under an emergency declaration. The feds need to suspend the hours of service regs until this situation is stabilized. If you think it’s bad now, think about how the speculated infection rate would thin the ranks of the already inadequate qualified truckers we already have. This approach would at least counterbalance that.
I’d run seven days a week until this emergency is handled. I think most of the guys I know in this business would be proud to do the same. You wouldn’t need to pay us more per hour or per mile to save everybody’s bacon, but the government would need to remove our leashes.
Very informative post. You told us something that hasn’t been reported lately, and I don’t doubt you at all.
Thanks. I hope the feds relax the regs so you get an opportunity to do what you do and make a lot of money. I wish you great success.
Trump has heard you. The Federal regs on truckers’ hours have been waived.
Hours of service rules were suspended.
Get some sleep. After you wake up you will see this.
Increase the legal weight to 85 thousand pounds and shut the GD SOB CHICKEN COOPS DOWN!!!!!!!
Prayers up for you!
Be safe out there!
Thank you!
They need to do that. You guys are now the bloodstream running oxygen through the nation's veins. You are necessary to help keep us alive.
This is a really helpful comment for me. We run a small business with a good portion of our business in the tractor/trailer owner/operator world. We’ve been hoping transportation would actually get busier due to the need to resupply all the empty stores.
I usually spend about half my day on the phone with various owner/operator customers. Yesterday and today I’ve had radio silence so I figured things are either really good or really bad!
I hope you make a lot of money for what you do....so many not working but in some areas, like trucking, grocery,nursing....its as much work as you want...
If we had a like button. I’d be pressing it for your comments, and an AMEN.